


A Moment’s Peace

by grlnamedlucifer



Category: Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003)
Genre: F/M, Twincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-03-28
Updated: 2004-03-28
Packaged: 2017-10-31 16:04:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/345955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grlnamedlucifer/pseuds/grlnamedlucifer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ghanima worries about her brother and offers some comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Moment’s Peace

**Author's Note:**

> This is based mostly on the mini-series, but for anyone who hasn’t read the book: the parent game mentioned is when Leto & Ghanima would let Maud’Dib & Chani take over their consciousness in order to get help/info. (Chani occasionally helped Ghanima, like Maud’Dib/Leto in the miniseries.) Takes place shortly after the mini-series’ end.

~~~~~~~~~~

_He runs, and runs, and runs. And when he has exhausted himself he returns to me, puts his head in my lap, and asks me to help him find a way to die._  
-Ghanima, “Children of Dune” mini-series

~~~~~~~~~~

I wrap my arms around my chest as I watch the windstorm that my brother has become. I have had no rest tonight, for I refuse to sleep before my brother has returned to me. I fear the day he never does may soon come, for every night it takes longer and longer for him to exhaust himself.

I had told Farad’n that my brother was the stronger for accepting the agony. Now I wonder whether I had spoken truth. To follow the Golden Path, to truly become a desert creature. Would that truly have been worse than to watch the one I love more than life, the other part of myself, go through it? To wait every night for him to return to me, only to listen to him beg for death? To watch as his beautiful skin is consumed by that equally beautiful yet all too destructive living skin? To bear to know that that boy who I played with as a child in our parents’ room, whose clothes I fussed over, whose company I kept when he could not sleep; is no longer human? How I wish for us both that we were no more than simple Fremen children, whose only destiny was to simply live out their lives as they saw fit. Damn his Golden Path! 

I hear now the sound of the windstorm, the sound of my brother’s return. I am afraid to look up, afraid to see that beautiful face hidden behind a mask of exhaustion, his clothes in tatters from the wind, his eyes that I can read as easily as my own mind filled with desperation and fear. But Leto proves he knows my mind as well as he ever has and does not wait for my welcome. He crawls to me, wraps his arms around my waist, and hides his head in my lap so that I do not have to witness his despair. I wait for it, but he does not ask for his death tonight. Something which I will be forever grateful, for I do not think I would have been able to bear it with the thoughts I have had tonight.

Would that I could give him one moment of peace! One moment’s distraction from visions and destiny and politics! One moment to let him put down his burden and truly rest!

My mother-within whispers at these thoughts. I know well how she would have comforted Father, but for Leto and I? I do not feel disgust at these thoughts the way any good Fremen would, though. But then, Leto and I have never been mere brother and sister. I know I had claimed to be repulsed at such thoughts after our last _parent game_ , but that was when children were the desired result. No shame can be felt at wanting to simply comfort my brother- my husband? Can it?

I gently lift Leto’s head from my lap and hold his face in my hands as I look at him. His face has not changed much from the day he was returned to me, the living skin not yet claiming it completely, though he’s begun to grow a worm’s teeth in his mouth. I kiss away the tears from his pain-filled eyes, and then kiss his mouth like I have done so many times before. I put my arms around him and make him stand, leading him over to my bed. I do not know if he has yet guessed my intentions, though when I look and find confusion in his eyes I know that he realizes something has changed tonight.

I lie down on my bed and pull him on top of me. As I kiss his mouth, deeper this time, I run my hands down his back, attempting to soothe out some of the tension in it. Leto allows it for a moment, but then raises his head to look at me. Almost all the confusion is gone now, but I know he is still wary to assume he knows my mind- even when he has always know it.

“Ghani?”

I continue my attempts to soothe as I answer him. “Lay down your burden for this night, Leto. I cannot carry it for you, but let me distract you from it for a little while. Let me give you a moment’s peace, a moment’s rest while I still can? Before you are too far gone for me to even offer it? Let me give you this little comfort from the choice you were forced to make? Take your comfort in me?”

He is not repulsed by my offer, I know, but he is still as shocked by it as I would be had our places been changed. He reaches up and brushes aside the hair that’s fallen on my face and asks if I realize what I’m asking.

“I offer you only what comfort a wife may give her husband. No more, no less.”

“But you know that you and I are more than that, Ghani! We’re-”

“Sister and brother, yes. But Mother and Father as well. Leto… You give up so much to protect me- to protect us! You give up yourself for our people! Is it so much to ask that I give up myself to you?”

He stares at me for such a long moment that I fear he will refuse and I will lose him again to his despair. But then, he closes his eyes, and I know he has accepted. He leans down to kiss my cheek, my neck, my mouth. My eyes remain open, for even in this intimacy I will not allow his back to remain exposed and unprotected.

He returns to kissing my neck as I begin to push his loose pants down his legs. I feel my mother-within attempt to push her way forward and, when he raises his head to again kiss my lips, I see our father in his face. But we push them both away. This is not about them, as much as they might wish it. It is not even about me. This is for my Leto.

He moves aside the fabric of my dress as I pull him between my legs. He stops for a moment, looking at me, and I nod my permission. He pushes in slowly, and I gasp at the feeling of being filled with him. It hurts a little, for I have not yet been with Farad’n and this is new to me, but I smile as I see the peace filling his face- would that I could keep it there forever! We have always been one soul in two bodies, but for this briefest time we can be one completely.

He slowly begins to move again, growing faster as he moves in and out of me. Sweat begins to cover us as we both long for, and dread, falling over the edge. He suddenly tenses in my arms, and then comes with my name on his lips. I link my hand with his and reach down to help him bring me off as well, gasping his name into his mouth as he kisses me.

After a while, he pulls out of me. He lies beside me, with his arm around my waist and his head on my chest, whispering ‘thank you’ into my skin. I kiss his head and begin to run my hands down his back again, listening as his breathing slowly evens out as he falls into a restful sleep for the first time since before I can remember. I stay awake the rest of the night, guarding my poor Leto and giving thanks to Shai-Hulud, Maud’Dib, and any other god I can think of that has allowed me to give him this simple moment of peace.

~~~~~~~~~~

_"This is the way it will always be with us. We'll stand thus when we are married. Back to back, each looking outward from the other to protect the one thing which we have always been." He turned, looked mockingly at Farad'n, lowered his voice: "Remember that, cousin, when you're face to face with my Ghanima. Remember that when you whisper of love and soft things, when you are most tempted by the habits of my peace and my contentment. Your back will remain exposed."_  
\- Leto,  Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

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End file.
